Water Wars, Water Woes from Dave Bender on Vimeo.
YouTube version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nASTHXpvyz8
Governor Sonny Perdue plans to meet with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, and Jim Connaughton, environmental quality adviser to President George Bush, on Friday to discuss the drought, according to a report citing a Governor's Office official.
The two Administration officials, in an effort to head off more acrimony between Georgia, Alabama, Florida and the Army Corps of Engineers over water usage, are to meet later in the day with Alabama Governor Bob Riley.
Riley told The Birmingham News:
''We're going to tell him that the only way all of us get through this is through a concept of shared pain."Perdue, at a press conference on the fast-drying shores of West Point Lake on Wednesday, Oct. 24, lashed out at both the Army Corps of Engineers and Riley (see video).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated Chattahoochee, Dooly, Marion, Muscogee, and Talbot counties as primary natural disaster areas, due to drought-incurred losses. Crisp, Macon, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, and Taylor counties were named contiguous disaster areas.
The decision allows farmers in both areas to apply for low-interest emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency (FSA).
Click here for more GPB News coverage of the drought.